Mama lioness Sukari, sleek and muscular, tenderly licked one cub's fur, but swatted the cubs when they grew too boisterous. Daddy lion M'wasi, fringed with a fierce mane, regally surveyed the scene and roared when a cub playfully leapt on top of him.

It's been a long and rocky road for the fledgling family. The parents were transferred to the Bronx from other zoos in 2005 as part of the Species Survival Plan.

The cooperative effort between zoos and biologists mates animals threatened in the wild to ensure the species' continued survival, at least in captivity. M'wasi, 8, and Sukari, 5, seemed an ideal match because they have genes under-represented in captive lions.

But it was hardly love at first sight.

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Sukari made a disastrous first impression on her would-be mate.

"She didn't have her social skills," Breheny explained. "Running and jumping on him, ambushing him from behind - he's trying to rest and she's climbing all over him." Somehow M'wasi tolerated all the not exactly lady-like behavior.

And love slowly bloomed as Sukari left her wild ways behind.

"She grew up and matured," Breheny said. "She became a lioness, and not a cub."

Last year, Sukari gave birth to a single cub, Moxie. It was the first lion birth at the zoo in 31 years. But it looks like the pair was just getting started.

On Jan. 27 triplets were born at the zoo. The triplets lived indoors and were seen by hardly any humans until now.

"We were very careful to respect the female and her privacy," Breheny said, "because you don't want to upset the mom."

The cubs weighed about five pounds at birth and already weigh 25 pounds now. They grow up fast. Moxie, now a year-and-a-half old, is already almost as big as her mother. She could grow to be 350 pounds.

For the next couple weeks the cubs will be on display only from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. as they get used to their new outdoor home.

The African Plains outdoor habitat, opened in 1941, was the first zoo display to show predators and prey together. Lions are separated by moats from African antelope, while brilliant blue peacocks strut and spread their tail feathers.

The lions are too well-fed to care much about the just-out-of-reach prey.

The zoo provides the pride a scrumptious diet of cow meat, bone and hair, with an occasional knuckle bone thrown in as a treat.

Lions, native to sub-Saharan Africa, are disappearing in the wild, threatened by the destruction of their natural habitat and conflicts with humans. In recent years their numbers have dropped from more than 100,000 to just 29,000.

The Bronx Zoo hopes its lion pride will inspire New Yorkers to support Wildlife Conservation Society's efforts in Africa to save threatened populations of predator cats including lions.